Disposing of old electronic equipment is an increasing problem for many households as many items fall into the category of electronics including alarm clocks; CD/DVD players and game consoles; small kitchen appliances such as kettles, toasters and blenders; personal grooming products like hairdryers, straighteners, electric toothbrushes and shavers; garden tools such as lawnmowers and shredders; other items such as lamps, torches, vacuum cleaners, phones, radios, TVs, printers, cameras and smoke alarms. Some local authorities collect small electrical items as part of their kerbside collection, otherwise you can recycle these and larger items at selected retailers and at Household Waste Recycling Centres.

It is easy to check if an electrical item, toy or game is recyclable if it has reached the end of its working life. Some will have a sticker saying not recyclable but if not then advice can be sought from your local recycling centre.

When recycling computers and phones it is important to delete any personal information that may be held on the device by doing a factory reset if the appliance is working or by removing the hard drive and destroying it.

If you have an electrical item that is still in good working condition, you could consider selling it, passing it on to someone else or donating it – some charity shops accept working electrical items for resale.